FYI, I know there has been a post of mods from JH and the results were praised. Buyer beware.
I have been asked by many of you to post my experience with John Hennessey. I will do so, but for obvious reasons will not disclose all the legal processes underway and planned or status of those processes. This is a bit different than some of the others I’ve read on this forum about John as my situation involves money, property, and at an international level. I will be as brief as possible without cutting out any of the meat. I am not doing this to get back at John, as I know that is pointless- but rather to try and inform others to what my experience has been in trying to do business with him. I am not “advising” anyone to do or not do anything- that is your choice.
Several years ago, I married a Russian woman whom I met at a conference where she was working as a simultaneous interpreter for Russia under the auspices of the United Nations. We now live in the Seattle area and she is now a permanent US resident. Her son is part of the “new generation” of Moscowvites, a very well known and respected Moscow businessman and he still lives in Moscow.
In July of 2001 her son contacted me in Seattle saying that he saw an advertisement in a magazine ( the “Dupont Registry”) and on the Internet at Hennessey’s website regarding parts for upgrading the horsepower of corvettes from 350 HP to 500 HP.
As my son and his friend both had corvettes (which are rare in Moscow) they wanted me to contact John Hennessey and negotiate a price for him to send the upgrade parts to Moscow, Russia. At first, Mr. Hennessey wanted my son in law to send his corvette to him in Houston, but the shipping cost with customs duties, etc would have been as much as the corvettes themselves cost new. When my son in law refused to send the cars, Mr Hennessey was then willing to negotiate a price ( via e-mail ) and we agreed on a price of $10,000 for each corvette. Against my advice, my son in law then did a direct wire transfer from Moscow to Mr. Hennessey’s bank account for $20,000.
Mr. Hennessey acknowledged receiving the money on November 6, 2001 and stated that work was underway to machine the parts. He was asked by my son in law about the security management computers in their Corvettes and Hennessy said that he did not need them as no new programming would be required.
After some time went by, there was no response by Mr. Hennessey. My wife and I then started calling and e-mailing Mr. Hennessey on a regular basis to get the status. At first he said the order was only days from being ready to ship but he needed the two security management computers from their corvettes in order to program in the new codes (which of course he had said earlier he did not need).
My son in law then sent both of these computers to him. Ever since, these two cars have been inoperable and in storage in Moscow. Then after repeated calls, and repeated lies about the order status, Mr. Hennessey said the order was ready to ship that night (February 4, 2002) but he needed to finalize the shipping address (which had been given to him in December). The shipping address was sent to him again. I am including a cut and paste from a few of his e-mails to me – (notice the dates)
January 28, 2002-
“ I WILL HAVE YOUR DHL TRACKING NUMBERS FOR THE PARTS BEING SHIPPED OUT TODAY BEFORE I GO HOME.”
February 4, 2002
“MS GREEN, WE HAVE DHL HERE NOW AND WE DO NOT HAVE THE COMPLETE SHIPPING INFO WHWRE THE PARTS ARE BEING SENT IN RUSSIA. WOULD YOU PLEASE BE SO KIND AS TO EMAIL ME THE COMPLETE NAMES, ADDRESS, CITY, POSTAL CODE AND CONTACT PHONE NUMBERS FOR THE PACKAGES TO BE SHIPPED. DHL WILL BE RETURNING THIS AFTERNOON AND I CAN GIVE YOU YOUR TRACKING NUMBERS THEN. THANKS
March 5, 2002
PRODUCTS ARE BEING DISPATCHED TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:
After that, I guess he just ran out of things to promise as that was pretty much the end of his e-mail and phone calls. Obviously nothing was ever sent.
I stated earlier I would not give the status of activities in progress but one point of interest is that my attorney was able to talk to Hennessey in February and was told by Hennessey that the parts had been sent air freight and as soon as he got home, he would send a copy of the air freight lading to the attorney. That must be a slow plane as a year later it still hasn’t arrived in Moscow. Of course, the attorney never received anything either and Hennessey has refused to answer any calls from the attorney since. At least Hennessey proved to be consistent in his lies regardless of who he was talking to.
There is an obvious void in my story between March and now- but a lot has been going on in preparatory work to do what I need to do. The way the situation is at this point is that almost a year and an half after the initial $20,000 was sent, Hennessey still has the money and two security management computers (from my standpoint stolen computers). My son in law and his friend in Moscow have two inoperable corvettes in storage. And I might add a large number of irate notable Moscow businessmen. Fortunately, I have kept all the documentation on this so am able to substantiate everything I have said and a lot that I haven’t said.
Again, I hope this helps anyone considering doing business with Hennessey. I’m not advising anyone to do anything- as I found with my son in law, there are many people that will follow their heart rather than their brain- but at least you have my experience to consider
Bill 
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